As the migratory colony led by the Queen Ant, Kerrigan, showed off its brutality and combat power by transforming every single worker ant into a combat mutant, they continued their relentless advance toward the southern region of the beastkin territory.
Meanwhile, on the Terra continent forum, the deities were all on edge.
[God of War: There are too many of those insects. Even if I wanted to transfer more resources from my home domain, my current interference force simply isn't enough. I urgently need support.]
[God of Wisdom: I knew this would happen. You war gods never know how to use resources efficiently.]
Naturally, the one in the greatest panic was the beastkin deity, Uria.
The strength of a deity's interference force was determined by the number of their territories and servants.
To interfere in Terra, one had to possess a sufficient number of territories and servants on this land.
Even though Uria possessed a massive amount of resources and numerous heroes in his home domain, the support he could currently provide to the beastkin of Terra was extremely limited.
[God of Wisdom: The most important thing is to increase the scale of the faction itself. I shouldn't even have to teach you this. You're so busy focusing solely on creating individual heroes that you haven't even enlightened your people, taught them technology, or developed their civilization. How could you possibly build a solid foundation?]
The God of Wisdom, who had established a firm foothold in the Lucadia Empire and was continuously expanding his influence, could not help but mock Uria.
Instead of creating a few exceptional heroes, he had chosen to teach his servants a more advanced magical civilization.
In the top-secret laboratories deep within the Empire, the rapidly developing new magical technologies were all born from the knowledge he had bestowed.
The improved combat golems were merely a part of it.
[God of War: I firmly believe my method is not wrong. It's just that my opponent is too troublesome. At least those who accepted my power and became my trusted confidants would never dare use that power to betray me.]
[God of Wisdom: ...Even at this point, you can only talk a big game.]
Of course, every method had its own advantages and disadvantages, depending entirely on the deity's own choices.
By granting power to specific servants and turning them into heroes like Uria did, those who witnessed the miracles performed by these heroes would offer him absolute obedience.
Having won his title of God of War through countless wars of conquest and great achievements, he simply could not resist the allure of heroic power and miracles.
[Goddess of Light: It's hilarious just listening to you two. Weren't you both beaten to a pulp by those insects anyway? Stop wasting time with useless talk and show some real strength. Don't tell me you haven't realized that those creatures have already targeted you?]
[God of War: Goddess, shut your filthy mouth!]
A single remark from Hestia, the goddess who had awakened as a deity through faith and dogma, finally pushed Uria over the edge.
However, Hestia's words were not without merit.
Now that even the last remnants of the Empire's army had been wiped out, the ant army was currently preparing a massive expedition against the Empire.
This was something Elise had planned from the very beginning. Scouting reports had already confirmed that a massive swarm of ants was on the move.
[God of War: They're bypassing that tiny Holy Kingdom, which is practically on their doorstep, just to march all the way over here to attack us?]
[Goddess of Light: How could we possibly guess the thoughts of an Outer God?]
Had it not been for the existence of the ant colony, the three deities here would undoubtedly have been each other's closest competitors, fighting to the death for more land and greater influence.
Uria truly could not understand why the ant colony would ignore the Holy Kingdom, which was much closer to their nest, to attack him instead. Yet Hestia's single sentence perfectly summarized the current situation.
No one could read the mind of an Outer God. Because they were chaotic entities existing outside of order, they defied all common sense and could not be reasoned with.
“But that's not what's happening at all.”
Watching the deities' conversation, Lin Miao could only sigh helplessly at this deepening misunderstanding.
【A deity's classification will change based on their accumulated karma.】
“I watched for so long, and in the end, it's just a strange label. It's not actually useful for anything,” Lin Miao grumbled to himself.
Ultimately, a deity's classification merely represented their behavioral tendencies.
Just as an entity rooted in faith, relying on blind devotion and sacrifice to establish dogma and sweep across the world, would eventually become a goddess and build her own faction, those who committed endless slaughter and destruction would become an Evil God.
The karma on Lin Miao's shoulders had all been accumulated by the ant colony, which was not his original intention, but he still accepted the outcome calmly.
After all, even if he was classified as an Evil God, there were no negative side effects.
Whether an Evil God or a demon god, they were ultimately just deities within the Divine Net.
Only Outer Gods were guarded against by everyone simply due to their very existence.
From the very beginning, Lin Miao had relied on unexpected awakenings and growth to reach this point, so he did not care too much about his current status.
Because of this, unlike other deities who held steadfast beliefs, he was exceptionally free in this regard.
“Right now, what Elise wants is a reaction from the Holy Kingdom.”
In contrast to the panic among the deities in this region, the ant colony's target was actually something else entirely.
Taking the long way to attack the Empire was merely a byproduct.
Her true motive was to exploit the empty defenses of her nest to lure the Holy Kingdom's army—especially that infuriating nemesis of hers—out from behind their high wall.
【Elise is certain that humans are highly cunning creatures who excel at taking advantage of an opponent's weak defenses to launch efficient attacks.】
Having developed a deeper understanding of humans, Elise firmly believed that as long as she deployed the majority of her forces elsewhere, the humans would definitely seize this opportunity to launch an offensive.
“So she gave up on crossing the sea directly?” Lin Miao muttered to himself, looking at the empty containers in his trash can.
Relying on the abilities of the water striders, after winning their first naval battle in the lower reaches of the wide river, he had urgently purchased a batch of aquatic insects and dropped them in for Elise.
Inside were diving beetles, giant water bugs, and water bugs.
However, Elise and the ant colony ultimately determined that using their devouring ability to transport a massive force across the sea was highly inefficient.
Even if they could barely send over a small force, that would be the extent of it.
The resources invested were completely disproportionate to the returns, so they decisively gave up on the idea.
“...To think she actually built a nest directly.”
Instead, Elise began constructing a new nest to the west.
They built nests and established strongholds in the areas swept clean by the migratory colony, slowly moving the massive army gathered from the entire territory toward the Empire.
The number visible on the surface alone already exceeded hundreds of thousands.
If they also counted the ants, eggs, and larvae active underground, the number would more than double.
Watching this grand army on his full screen, Lin Miao could not help but stare in awe.
Rate on N.U.
